


Vending machine

by starrystarrytrouble



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: Angst, Boss/Employee Relationship, Doctors & Physicians, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Forbidden Love, Romance, Secret Relationship, Slow Burn, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:35:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25714399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrystarrytrouble/pseuds/starrystarrytrouble
Summary: Ethan breaks up MC’s fight with a vending machine.Set after MC’s patient is poached by Mass Kenmore in chap 7 book 2.
Relationships: Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart)
Kudos: 25





	Vending machine

Ethan could recognize her voice anywhere. But he didn’t expect to hear it in muffled irritated bursts alongside angry banging on the 4th floor corridor.

“C’mon, c’mon. Eurgh, why is this happening to me?”

He peered round the corner to see Eve leaning on the vending machine, one arm holding the top and the other fiercely hitting the door back and forth.

“Don’t do this now. Come on! I paid for you. You belong to me!”

The last line put a faint smile on his face, he walked over and simultaneously, almost as if she sensed his presence, she turned towards him.

“Dr Valentine.”

She went back to half-heartedly rattling the machine.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing? Trying to get one thing to go my way today.”

She looked through the machine window and tapped the glass with a fingertip.

“I wasn’t getting something for me.”

“I guessed.”

“Of course you did,” she nodded softly, “I learnt this trick from you. It’s for Angelique, my kidney patient. She’s 5, hates hospitals and won’t take her meds. She’s pretty terrified of being here. I thought I’d give her something to cheer her up and stop hating doctors too. I figured it might help keep her here.”

She looked up at him, exhausted and defeated.

“Leave it, come with me.”

He took her hand in his and pulled her along gently, letting go at the end of the corridor when they were no longer alone, but keeping her close so that their hands still brushed against each other’s as they walked.

“Wait, this isn’t the way to the Diagnostics Office.”

Ethan sighed. “I am well aware of that.”

They walked up the stairs and her hand found his, her green eyes catching his momentarily with a smile when she realised where they were going.

He unlocked the door and turned on the light to his old office.

“I can’t believe you’re inviting me in. I thought this was your secret hideaway.”

He smirked at her, leaned on the desk with his arms folded and gestured behind him.

“Bottom drawer.”

She walked behind the desk tentative, conscious that she was in his personal space and even more aware that she had been welcomed there. Pulling at the drawer she gasped and then began giggling uncontrollably at the contents.

“You’ve got the whole of Hersheys in here!”

She pulled out the bars one by one, “Milky way, 3 Musketeers, Reese’s, Butterfingers, oh my god, is that an Almond Joy?”

He watched her laugh and wiggle a Baby Ruth bar at him sceptically, all signs of stress and exhaustion wiped away by the excitement of discovering his candy stash. He knew the word and he hated it. She looked downright _adorable_.

“Okay so are you gonna tell me why you have all this here?” she snapped a Tootsie Roll and offered him the rest of the stick.

“I have them for the same reason I caught you fighting a vending machine earlier. For my patients. Only I won my battle.”

“So this bribing patients thing is an Ethan Ramsey recommended…wait, no. No, no, no. That was you?”

She recalled housekeeping clearing glass from the 5th floor vending machine a few months ago and rumours swirling that an unnamed attending that smashed it in the middle of the night to free a trapped candy bar for a patient. She should have known it was him by the way the nurses swooned about it for weeks.

He shrugged. “I paid for the damages so I kept the contents to prevent a reoccurrence. Clearly, I was correct in my assumption. If I hadn’t stopped you, you’d be on the receiving end of an unpleasantly large bill from Naveen.”

“I knew what I was doing.”

He scoffed and rolled his eyes which set her laughing again.

She came over to perch on the edge of the desk next to him, so close their bodies were touching, comfortable with neither speaking until she broke the quiet.

“I messed up, didn’t I? With Stephanie? I let her go and I’ve blown our chances at getting that grant.”

“There’ll be other chances for research funding.”

“I just want to get back at Mass Kenmore. I can’t believe they contacted her.”

“Revenge isn’t going to make you feel better.”

“Really? Because the thought of grinding Tobias’s face into the dirt feels pretty good right now.”

Ethan smiled silently.

“I’m so angry with myself. I’m supposed to be helping Edenbrook, not handing out cash prizes to other hospitals.”

She looked up at him, the weight of her mistake glittering in her eyes, her full lips leaning nearer to him and he was close, mere seconds away from breaking his resolve, when she pressed her mouth to the absolute corner of his.

He shut his eyes, memorising the feeling of her lips against his skin, instinctively frozen yet struggling to hold himself back from kissing her. She pulled back aware that she had traipsed over yet another boundary and felt a small pang of satisfaction at knowing he hadn’t stopped her.

She was expecting the rebuke but when none came she noticed that he was still looking at her, his eyes dark and intense, tracing her outline, and the hint of something else still raging in his mind.

She smiled when he finally put his arm around her, pressing her close to him.

“You did what was right for the patient. That’s all that matters.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Tumblr: @starrystarrytrouble


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